Mixed breed or purebred? Boy or girl dog?

[westwoodmom04]

In your shoes, and with the need right now for placements from shelters, I would find a good rescue group in your area, and work with them to find a dog with the right temperament for your family. A young but housebroken dog, or puppy would be perfect.

If you do go the breeder route, I would look for one that also shows dogs on their own -- they tend to be true dog lovers and breed less frequently. We had to wait a good while for our tibetan terrier because the breeder only had one or two litters a year.

[carolinamama]

As an adult, we've only had male dogs. My parents have always had female so that's what I grew up with. Not sure I would necessarily base our decision solely on male/female but more on personality of individual dogs. I've found that more dominant/alpha dogs stop to mark more frequently than just male vs. female.

We currently have a mix that we got as an informal rescue. A vet tech found him on the streets a month or so after our pure-bred dog died, my friend manages the vet clinic and connected us when he was just under a year old. He was definitely screened (and had full vet care) but not formally so. He's about 80 lbs and a pit mix of some sort. He's over 11 years so we've had lots of time with him. Best dog. Last weekend he got into the trash and tried to eat a chicken bone. I stuck my hand so far down his throat to grab the bone and he just allowed it. He's way healthier than the Springer Spaniel we had years ago. We also have a 2.5 yo shih tzu that was a Christmas gift to DS2. He's stolen my heart, but I still prefer my rescue. We will go that route again next time. I can deal with shedding though. Not loving the grooming aspect of our shih tzu.

One thing to note - rescue/pound dogs that aren't young puppies come with baggage. We often don't know their previous circumstances. It takes lots of patience to work through it. I remember the frustration of working with a new furry family member that didn't have the benefit of joining us as a cuddly little thing with puppy breath. It isn't for everyone but we really like the idea of helping a dog that needs a home as long as it fits our family.

[doberbrat]

Obviously I love my cockers. I also had the best though brattiest doberman ever. I prefer males given a choice. Oddly enough, its been the females that do the most marking here. Teddy pees once on a walk. Maybe. Often he doesnt pee at all. yesterday we walked 2 miles and nothing. Princess in would stop every so often to pee. Very typical of our walks.

Here even shelter dogs are 300-700 depending on which shelter and how old the dog is. Vet care is expensive here and they come fully vetted and s/n. And yes, spaying is more expensive than neutering generally but over the lifetime of the dog, its a pretty small difference.

[AnnieW625]

Between DH and myself prior to our current dog DH had one male dog and the rest were females. Dh had the male dog for about a year when he was a kid (it ended up having to be put down because it got a fox tail in it’s leg and it got infected....this was in the early 80s so no clue if that same infection could’ve been prevented today). For whatever reason they had only female dogs after that dog.

Growing up I had two German Shepard mix pups we got from our local animal shelter, both were female. One lived to be 12, and the other lived to be 16. We absolutely loved these dogs, but the second one who was probably more Shepard than the first jumped liked crazy and could clear an 8 ft. fence. We decided when we got our first dog as a couple in 2005 that we wouldn’t get German Shepard due to the low 6.5 ft. walls we have in our back yard.

Dh had a wide variety of probably 8 dogs growing up (they always had 2 dogs growing up) and had a mix of pretty much everything (an elkhound, a Shepard/husky mix, a springer spaniel, and a couple of black labs). I only knew the last black lab and she was a great dog. With the exception of the Shepard/husky mix he told me that all of the dogs they had gotten from their friends as they were extras from a litter. They got the Shepard/husky from the local animal shelter.

Our first dog we got together as a couple was a black lab we got from the animal shelter and we were pretty sure she was a pure bread American lab (she was a very stocky dog who fit the American lab vs. English lab stature) and she was a wonderful family dog. We chose her because she wasn’t jumping in the pen at the shelter so we knew there was a good chance she wouldn’t try to jump our fences. We fee we got really lucky with her.

Our current dog is a 17 pound mix of what we think is Dachshund, Jack Russell Terrier, and Chihuahua. Dh refuses to pay for the genetic testing for the dog as it is $80 or so. He is taller and stockier than a chihuahua, he is long and his ears flip over like a Dachshund, and he has a lot of energy and is built like a Jack Russell. He does have fits of barking and is a little anxious (he goes crazy when a doorbell rings on TV), but otherwise he is a great family dog for our family with older kids.

If I could chose a dog breed I would love a standard size poodle because they are hypoallergenic, they are loyal and they seem to be good family dogs if you get one when they are young. I have heard that make poodles have a better temperament than female poodles so I might consider a male poodle vs. a female. Unfortunately there needs to be one at the local shelter, or we would have to be given one, or personally know a breeder to get one because DH is very pro adopting dogs from county shelters. I can’t see DH ever paying a breeder for a dog because he’d rather adopt from the shelter unless he personally knew the breeder. When we were adopting the black lab DH didn’t have a good meeting with a lab rescue and it left a really bad taste of working with dog rescues.


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[smilequeen]

All dogs are awesome That's the best answer I have. Dogs are the best.

We've had purebreds with kids. I just wanted the personality traits to be pretty well known. We got 2 pugs before we had kids. We knew we were going to have kids and we wanted a smaller, gentle, playful breed that really couldn't do much damage even if for some odd reason the dog snapped. They were perfect. We had one from a breeder and one from a rescue.

I had a collie growing up and just really, really wanted one so that was the first big dog we got, 4 years ago...so we had the 3 kids, 2 pugs, and a Collie. The pugs both passed at 17-18 years old.

Now we have the Collie and a bernedoodle (so a "designer" mixed breed, husband's choice...he's a great dog, I'm just not sure that's the direction I would have gone on my own). And I miss having a pug around. So maybe someday...but 2 dogs is enough for me.

I don't care about male or female, but when we have 2, we try to have one of each. I do think it works slightly better that way, but I don't have a preference on the gender of the dog otherwise.

We also had plenty of mixed breed dogs growing up and I loved all of them. I just love dogs...but I guess I do like having a bit more of a solid idea of basic personality traits that comes with a purebred.

[mmsmom]

I had a golden retriever that I got when I was 20 from a backyard breeder (didn’t know better) and he died from
cancer at 9. I wanted to ensure next dog was healthy so I went to a very reputable breeder, did a lot of research, double checked everything, had my own vet evaluation yet he still developed Lymphoma (most likely genetic) and also died at 9. So your really never know but I do think purebreds have more health issues some of which are impossible to know even if you have health records and tests of parents.

So now we are back to mutts which I think it the best way to go. We got a rescue puppy 6 years also and he is a great family dog. My only requirement with younger kids is that puppies are best since you don’t know what situations older dogs are coming from and what could provoke them. Now that my kids are older I wouldn’t hesitate to get an older rescue.

ETA: Our dog was $400 from the shelter. It included neutering, vaccines and vet visits for 6 months. Puppies were usually $450 but there was a $50 off promotion. Older dogs are less and sometimes they have sponsors so all dogs are free. Puppies are never included in those though. It’s a lot for a “free” dog but the initial vet bills would have easily been that much anyway.

[specialp]

All dogs are awesome That's the best answer I have. Dogs are the best.

Yes!

Now we have purebreds. That's what I need and can handle. Pre-kids, we had rescue mixed breeds including one who we found and could never find a home so we kept her. I had both growing up as well. I've had more girls than boys and my very favorite dog I ever had was girl mixed breed. However, I have the slightest preference for boys, but I do not know why.

[kdeunc]

We currently have purebred dogs, 2 German Shepherds and an English Mastiff. We had a specific preference for breed in these cases. With the Mastiff we knew we needed a puppy because our Shepherds are 10 and not fond of adult dogs. My husband specifically wanted an English Mastiff, if we did not have kids and other dogs I would have been happy to consider a rescue and we may in the future. We have had boys and girls and both have been wonderful. I would say that I agree with a pp that our boy dogs have been in love with us, especially the Mastiff. We knew that with the Mastiff we wanted a boy. It is recommended that you not spay or neuter a giant breed dog until after the age of 2 and I did not want to have to deal with a female in heat. He is now 15 months old and we have had no issues with him personality wise due to being unaltered. I think you have to decide what fits best with your family needs.

[zukeypur]

I have had both mixed and pure breeds, and I currently favor either a purebred or a cross of a specific breed. Heinz 57 will not do. I adopted a mixed breed and she was the absolute, without a doubt, WORST DOG EVER.

However, I know of several pure breeds that I would never own. I won’t list them so as not to offend anyone who has one, but I have a long list of never-owns. This comes from years of working in vet hospitals and being the daughter of a vet, as well as knowing the tolerances of my family. We cannot tolerate excessive shedding or barking. Some families can, we cannot. Therefore, we would not adopt a dog that was not either purebred from a breed with the qualities that appeal to us, or a mix of breed with qualities that appeal to us. We currently have Italian greyhounds: one was give to us, the other was purchased from a breeder. The female is perfect in every way, the male has a good personality but pees on his front legs (as male iggies do) and pees in my house. I do not tolerate marking (which he didn’t start until he was 8 years old, he was neutered when he was 5 months old), so I would never again have a male dog. My experiences and preferences, not applicable to everyone.

[Kindra178]

Our girl dog pees every two blocks. She will pee anywhere she smells pee.She also picks her leg up to a pee, like a boy dog. She can now pee on the side of building if she smells pee.

I think girl dogs are more selfish and less eager to please. Or maybe my dog is selfish and not eager to please!

I am rescue person. I hope to do rescue runs when I retire. We even had a very complicated 90 pound rescue dog that bit. I loved her so much!

We get our dogs from breed specific rescues. They pull dogs from the south or true Midwest.


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